Valkyrie
Biography Pre-Accident Ivana Kaldera was born in the Mediterranean island country of Lazenaru, the second child of Narit Kaldera and Lira Kaldera, the King and Queen of the country. She was born into extreme wealth. Pampered from birth, she wanted for nothing and was taught to expect that she could take what she wanted, when she wanted to. With this in mind, it's easy to understand her personality and character. She grew up very comfortably, and her parents hired only the best tutors for her to learn under. Once her powers developed, Ivana informed her parents what was happening. Rather than be upset or scared of their daughter, her parents were quite thrilled and wanted to help her learn how to control them. Her father hired more tutors, mutants and super powered humans alike to help his daughter learn how to control and manipulate her powers to the best of her ability. This explains how while Ivana doesn't have a wide extensive array of powers or a great strength in those powers, she has more control over them than those stronger than her. When Ivana was seventeen, her mother died in a fire that also claimed half of the palace that the family lived in. The death had a big toll on Ivana and her father. Her mother had long ago counseled Ivana on how to deal with members of the opposite gender. Her mother taught her how to manipulate men to get them to do whatever she wanted. Kaldera had a ripe training ground amongst the men of Lazenaru. She honed her mind and manipulative skills amongst the men, able to seduce even married men to do her bidding. She often would pit them against each other, for her own enjoyment. Her father didn't mind her behavior and in fact encouraged it, knowing that it would shape her into a powerful leader. Ivana eventually left Lazenaru, heading to Europe for her college studies. She went to Oxford and studied there, as well as at some of the other most prestigious schools in Europe. While her money and title would have gotten her admission into any of those schools, Ivana used only her grades and her knowledge to get in. There, she excelled in her field, which was business. She also began to network with other future business leaders. Lazenaru was already one of the most developed countries in the world, and was particularly powerful even without a military. But Ivana had plans to increase Lazenaru's wealth and power. To do that, she knew that she would need a particularly strong willed man to stand by her side as she ruled. With that in mind, she began to look around the world at men near her age. When she graduated, Ivana decided to head to the United States, to work for a large Fortune 500 company. it was then that her father took a special interest in the Matthews brothers and their research and she met James Matthews and his younger brother, Paul Matthews. She was immediately attracted to both, moreso the younger of the two. He was quiet and reserved, but something told her that behind closed doors he was much more energetic and full of life than his older brother. He needed someone to pull it out of him. Before she would get a chance to work on either of them, the two brothers and the rest of their team conducted the Energy Recapture Experiment. Accident Ivana wasn't part of the Energy Recapture Experiment. She was one of the many people who watched it, through the live press feeeds. She witnessed what happened though with a thirty seconds delay on everything. She watched as the experiment went awry, due to the failures of both brothers, though one would never admit that he had had any hand in its failure. She knew then and there what was going to happen. They were going to receive powers. It made sense. She had immediately attempted to get in touch with her father, but before she could call him, he called her. Her father wasn't a fool and had seen the attraction that Ivana had for Paul Matthews. He realized that his daughter was going to have to marry a strong man in order to rule properly. Narit had decided that either of the two Matthews brothers would fit the bill. Once Ivana had gotten off the phone with her father, she went to work getting all relevant information on both brothers. She decided to go after Paul Matthews. His brother was engaged to a member of the team, Emma Stevens, and while Ivana would easily have stolen him from her, she didn't want to be bothered with the effort that it would take. Paul, however, was ripe for the picking. So she had begun to do more research on Paul Matthews, learning his likes and dislikes. Shortly before the time of the accident, she began to actually court him, though she did things on a peripheral basis. At the time, she was interested to see that Emma was quite protective of Paul. The woman didn't screen any others who were interested in the man who was easily the smartest in the world. She did dissuade them from trying to get with the younger Matthews, that much was for sure. As it turned out, Ivana soon realized that Emma was actually in love with Paul, not James Matthews. While it would have made her think again about stealing James from Emma, now she wanted to get Paul even more, since it would hurt Emma to a great degree. It made the situation more interesting and Ivana couldn't resist. However, before she could make her move, the Energy Recapture Experiment took place. Post-Accident After the accident, Ivana knew that she would have to distance herself from the group for a period of time. It made sense to her, since she would need time to see how they would all react to the failure of the experiment. Unfortunately for her plans, James Matthews was lost for a long period of time, and it allowed Emma and Paul to express their feelings for each other. She had long ago come to terms with the fact that Paul was in love with Emma, and the type of love that they shared was the type that people sought after for their entire lives. It complicated things, but didn't make them that complicated that it was impossible to do. Before she acted though, she needed to find James Matthews. Outside of the F5 and government sponsored search, she conducted one of her own, with a much wider net than the one that the others were using. She knew that James would not frequent many of his former friends, and the ones that he did would be incredibly powerful so as to help him with whatever it was that he needed. At the time, James didn't consider going to Ivana's father or Lazenaru, despite the fact that the government had been one of the Matthews Research Team's largest contributor. As it turned out, she managed to find him, eventually. Where the others failed, she succeeded. He had gone to the founder of Paris Industries. She wasn't surprised by this move, and knew that once he had stopped moving around, she would be able to get in touch with him and speak with him. She wanted to know where he stood and what he was going to do now that he had powers. She had a good idea, but refused to act until she knew for sure herself. With her father pressuring her to meet with one of the Matthews, she knew she had to do something. The Meeting She went to Paris Industries, where James was currently staying. Using her telepathy, she was able to get past every level of security, waiting for James in his own private suite. When he came there, she began to speak with him. She had long ago sensed hostility between the two Matthews brothers and wanted to know exactly how James felt. When she went there, her plan was still to take Paul Matthews as her husband. She spoke to James then, explaining the situation to him and asking what he thought of his brother in that position. James had laughed. He had told her that Paul would be the worst choice. She had asked him why and he detailed Paul's faults. When she suggested him in her place, he shot her down, telling her that he didn't need anyone's help anymore. She continued to inquire why, and made him an offer than even he couldn't refuse. He would be the king of a powerful nation with an extensive money supply. He would be legitimatized and would be part of royalty. At first he continued to refuse, but eventually, he agreed, as long as one condition was met. She realized then that James actually had some feelings for his fiance, despite the number of times that he'd cheated on her. He told her that he wanted to see his fiance and his brother before he made his decision. After she got a way to get in touch with him, Ivana left. She had made up her mind. It would be James who she wed, and not Paul Matthews. When she left, she began to strategize on how she was going to meet up with one of the members of Fantastic Research Inc.. The group was not being very public yet, but there was one thing that they could not avoid. Meeting with members of the armed forces concerning defense contracts, especially since some of the work that the Matthews Research Team had been working on concurrent with the Energy Recapture Experiment had been sponsored by the armed forces and oriented for those who worked in the armed forces. She attended this meeting, due to her status as the daughter of the king of Lazenaru and as the heir to the throne. She spoke with Emma first, and then when Paul found them, was able to get the address to the Cascade Building from the younger Matthews brother. She allowed herself to be taken from them, after a period of time, so that they didn't feel as though she was being overbearing and more importantly, didn't happen to suspect her of any ulterior motives. Now that she knew where they were, she headed back to where James was a few days later, sneaking in as she had done before. When they met up again, she gave him the name of the building and more importantly, that it appeared as though Emma and Paul's relationship had shifted to a romantic one. She knew it to be true, but wanted him to come to the conclusion on his own and so she merely planted the seed. Then she sat back, content to watch her handiwork. The Reaping It took only a day. James discovered Emma's true feelings, the ones that she had kept hidden from everyone all these years. After a bit of a fight at the Cascade Building, James left. He had some other business to attend to, but he remembered Ivana. He came to her in the evening following his return to the Cascade Building, the same day as when he left the building and the Fantastic family for good. She welcomed him with open arms, and he spent the night, doing with her what Paul Matthews had thought he had done with Emma the night before. After they had had sex, Ivana waited until Doom was asleep. Then she used her telepathy to look into his brain. She didn't exactly like what she saw. James' hatred towards his brother had only intensified. This was good. His hatred towards the rest of the team was there as well, and this was good too. However, he still didn't hate Emma the way that Ivana wanted him too. Luckily for the both of them, she was telepathic. She manipulated the way that his mind saw things, replacing his love for Emma with hate. She also made it so that he would love her faster than he would have otherwise. The next day they began to make their plans, plans that would create a world of pain for their enemies. Making Plans Ivana knew that it was time for her to ascend to the throne of Lazenaru. In order to do that, either her father had to die of natural causes or through some ill intent. She knew that her father was in very good health and ruled out the former as being a possibility. Ivana was going to have to go with the latter. However, she didn't want anything getting back to her, so she couldn't afford to do the assassination herself. She went to a powerful group of assassins, the Hand. She paid them a sum of money to make sure that her father was killed. They dispatched their finest assassin to make sure that the job was done. Meanwhile, she was given a large stake of Paris Corporation by James and in addition was made the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors for the company. She began a campaign of expansion that the previous directors had been afraid of attempting. Kaldera worked on a few successful corporate takeovers, growing the Paris Corporation portfolio to include business not in its home industry. As she did, she made sure to use corporate money to attract the caliber of people that James would want and need in order to bring his plans to fruition. She wasn't above using her powers to do this as well. She kept her goals of taking over Lazenaru in mind as she worked from New York City. She began to work the social circles as well, in order to bring an even better reputation to Paris Corporation and more importantly, it's new owner, James Matthews. She had promised him when she had first gone to speak to him that through her he could be legitimized. She was the daughter of a King and she was a Princess herself. A connection to her made Doom's blood that much bluer and his actions that much more clearance. And it also made him that much more respected. She also kept close tabs on the Fantastic Five. She knew that James would one day go and crush them and so she wanted to make sure that he was up to date on their comings and goings. That way he would be able to better plan his revenge. Monarchs Ivana was working in New York City when James got in touch with her, telling her that he needed her to come to Rome, Italy where he was planning on an experiment. She left immediately, protected by some of Paris Corporation's guards. He brought her to a private airport, where James was waiting. She got on board one of Paris Corp's private jets. They took off, headed for Italy. James told her that they were going to Italy to oversee the purchase of a small company that worked in genetics and that he had wanted her to be there to give her opinion on the company. It was during the flight to Rome that James proposed marriage to Ivana, who accepted. While en route, Ivana received some incredibly good news. She had registered an assassination contract with Elektra, one that had finally been fulfilled. Elektra had killed her father, and because of how Lazenaru's line of succession worked, she was now the queen of the country and ruled it. She informed James of this and the two of them made plans to head to Lazenaru as soon as they were done in Italy to oversee the process of Ivana's coronation as the queen of Lazenaru. The Italy trip only took a short period of time, and soon they were in Lazenaru, Ivana's home country, to assume control of it. Ivana showed James around the small, but industrious island country, highlighting the different landmarks and teaching him about the history of the place. Soon, the time came for the coronation. In an event that was intentionally kept out of the public's eye, Ivana Kaldera was crowned as the new Queen of Lazenaru. What diplomatic immunity she had before was solidified and now she was considered even more respected than before. Ivana knew that one fo the first things that she would need to do, after she made a series of speeches and public appearances for the people of Lazenaru, was to go on a series of diplomatic tours of various different countries. She would meet with heads of state for these countries and they would discuss how Ivana intended to rule. She did want to help the people of her country, despite her more ulterior motives for the rest of the world. But the first thing that she wanted to do was to set James up with what he would need to fully begin his work. She officially reached out to Paris Corp and began official talks in regards to awarding the company a series of government contracts. In actuality, the contracts had in fact been worked out a while ago, and Paris Corp. had already started on a slew of new projects designed to work with the Lazenaru people and government. Once that was out of the way, and the speeches were done, it was time to go on the diplomatic tour. Meanwhile, James stayed behind in Lazenaru, to set up Paris Corp. new offices there. It would pose as a useful cover for what Doom would be doing next. To War Information Coming Soon Powers *'Telepathy:' Due to her mutation, Ivana has the ability to manipulate and read other's minds. She has trained herself to be very good with this skill. Ivana can passively pick up on people's thoughts, though she only has a certain radius in which that will happen. She can extend this radius, though the odds of her being able to pick up people's thoughts will exponentially decrease as the radius is increased. *'Telekinesis:' Through her mutation, Ivana has a large amount of control over the power known as telekinesis. She can lift and manipulate a wide assortment of objects. The exact extent to how large or small of an object she can control is currently unknown. It is theorized that the larger an object she attempts to manipulate the more time it takes and the strain it takes on her. The same would hold through for smaller objects. While she has some powers of her own, many of Ivana's powers come from her suit *'Super Strength:' The armor increases Ivana's strength to superhuman levels, enabling him to lift 20 tons. *'Flight:' The Valkyrie armor can reach speeds at Mach 2. *'Self-Contained Life-Support System & Environmental Protection:' The suit can be completely sealed for operations in vacuum or underwater, providing its own life support, and is shielded against radiation. *'Repulsors:' Concussive force bolts that are fired from the palms of her gauntlets. While powerful, they are not as powerful as those found on the Iron Man Armor *'Pulse Beams:' Electromagnetic beams that affect technology and machines. *'Power Cells:' The armor is powered by a combination of solar converters, electrical batteries and an on-board generator that uses beta particle absorption as a fuel source. Abilities *'Skilled Combatant:' Ivana has been trained in unarmed combat by various instructors and teachers. She has become quite physically formidable on her own when the situation demands it. *'Multi-lingual:' She speaks with fluency in English, French, Spanish, Greek, and Japanese. She also speaks the native language of Lazenaru and passable Russian. *'Expert Businesswoman:' Ivana is well-respected in the business world, able to command people's attentions when she speaks on economic matters by virtue of the fact that she is incredibly intelligent in multiple parts of business. Her wealth ranks him in the middle part of the Fortune 500 list. Limitations Ivana suffers from all the limitations of a normal human being. Threads Current Threads *World Crisis II: Prelude Past Threads *Monsters and Men *Fantastic Five: Fantastic Once More Category:Characters (WH)Category:Techno BeingCategory:MirrodinCategory: Mirrodin (WoH)